Dr Paul Donaghue has worked with ICI Australia, now Orica Pty Ltd., since 1970. He has been Chief Scientist of these organisations since 1992 and as such has been the focal point of interaction between Australia's largest chemical company, which is one of the country's leading private performer of research with other industrial, academic, and government research laboratories.

He has successfully managed the corporate changes that were required to change the company's research program into a fully decentralised R & D structure.
Perhaps his greatest personal contribution to research was in his role as Head of Explosives Research at ICI which has led to Orica having leading edge technology and becoming the world's leading explosives manufacturer.